Fukhian

A Constructed Agglutinating Human Language

This page uses a romanisation to show the Fukhian grammar. For showing
pronunciation, CXS (=Conlang X-Sampa) is used.

Please note that some examples in this file reflect the Ancient
Fukhian language. Unfortunately, they are not always properly marked.

This was my first constructed language. I started to work at it
around 1989, maybe earlier. It has not been modified since around
1994 and although I see some deficiencies today, I do not intend to
improve or extend it in a way that would be changing the original
design goals. This usually means that I cannot change or even extend
it at all.

The Fukhian script is an alphabet that is designed to be
written by hand. It has some similarities with the Arabic script, but
it is a 'hanging' script like Devanagari.

Writing direction is left-to-right, bottom-to-top.

All Fukhian sequences of letters and digits have to be delimited
to both sides by delimiter symbols. There are several sets of
delimiters having different functions. In the romanisation, the
delimiters are shown parentheses, brackets or braces with optional
additional marks like exclamation marks and the like.

Most voiced sounds may be devoiced either explicitly by
duplicating the letter, or implicitly by phonetic context.

Phones that occur due to phonological rules, i.e., phones that need
a context, are shown in parentheses. The examples are currently taken
from English, German, French and Icelandic. I do not have examples
for all phones yet.

Single Letters

Letter

Name

Digit

Phoneme

Phones

Description

Example

s

(sel)

2

/s/

[s]

alveolar voiceless fricative

en: lice

l

(las)

1

/l/

[l]

alveolar lateral approx., voiced by default

dt: leben

e

(elos)

0

/e/

[E]

front open-mid unrounded vowel

dt: wetten

i

(ilos)

4

/i/

[I]

front high (lax) unrounded vowel

dt: bitten

or

/j/

[j]

palatal approximant

en: young

g

(gel)

8

/g/

[g]

velar plosive, voiced by default

en: give

n

(nel)

3

/n/

[n]

alveolar nasal, voiced by default

en: name

f

(fas)

+

/f/

[f]

labiodental voiceless fricative

en: find

r

(rel)

9

/r/

[r]

alveolar trill, voiced by default

se: röd

m

(mas)

6

/m/

[m]

bilabial nasal, voiced by default

en: mouse

u

(ulos)

/u/

[U]

back high (lax) rounded vowel

dt: gucken

or

/w/

[w]

voiced labial-velar approximant

en: wait

o

(olos)

E

/o/

[O]

back open-mid rounded vowel

dt: locken

a

(alos)

/a/

[a_"] ([a] for simplicity)

central open unrounded vowel

dt: lachen

c

(cas)

/S/

[S]

postalveolar voiceless fricative

en: ship

j

(jel)

/Z/

[Z]

postalveolar fricative, voiced by default

fr: jeu

d

(das)

5

/d/

[d]

alveolar plosive, voiced by default

en: deep

N

(liN)

/N/

[N]

velar nasal, voiced by default

en: sing

b

(bas)

/b/

[b]

bilabial plosive, voiced by default

en: bid

h

(has)

7

/h/

[h]

glottal voiceless fricative

en: hope

G

(Gel)

-

/G\/

[G\]

uvular plosive, voiced by default

FIXME

x

(xas)

/x/

[X]

uvular fricative, velar or palatal dep. on context

dt: lachen

z

(zas)

/T/

[T]

dental voiceless fricative

en: think

y

(ylos)

.

/y/

[Y]

front high (lax) rounded vowel

dt: lüften

Oligographs and Phonological Changes

Graphemes

Phones

Examples

bb

[p]

fr: peut

bh

[p_h] or [p] (dialectal variants)

en: pause or fr: peut

dd

[t]

fr: teatre

dh

[t_h] or [t] (dialectal variants)

en: tip or fr: teatre

gg

[k]

fr: cas

gh

[k_h] or [k] (dialectal variants)

en: can or fr: cas

GG

[q]

FIXME

Gh

[q_h] or [q] (dialectal variants)

FIXME

hh

[?]

dt: -an-ecken

ll

[l=] or [l_0] or [l_0=] (dialectal variants)

dt: Säbel or is: hlýtt or FIXME

rr

[r=] or [r_0] or [r_0=] (dialectal variants)

FIXME or is: hrafn or ?

nn

[n=], [n_0], [n_0=] (dialectal variants)

dt: Latten or is: hnifur or FIXME

mm

[m=], [m_0], [m_0=] (dialectal variants)

dt: Lappen or (is: hrafnsins)? or (is: hrafn)?

NN

[N=], [N_0], [N_0=] (dialectal variants)

dt: Macken or is: langt or FIXME

lG

[l_GG\] (velarised alv. lat. approx. + uvul. vcd. plosive)

FIXME

Gl

[G\l_G]

FIXME

NG

[N\G\]

FIXME

GN

[G\N\]

FIXME

(e, i, y) + x

[x]

dt: suchen (some dialects)

xx

[C]

dt: ich

gxx

[cC]

FIXME (with plosive: is: riki)

nxx

[JC]

FIXME

ngxx

[JcC]

FIXME (with plosive: is: banki)

Note 1: The distinction between voiceless and syllabic (and voiceless syllabic)
is dialectal in all listed cases.

Note 2: Devoicing occurs in most circumstances: Fukhian prefers devoiced
clusters and therefore promotes devoicing from a single voiceless phone to the
whole cluster. Dialects that have a preference towards voiced syllabics
will not devoice the cluster e.g. in cases like (ammba), but
pronounce this [am=ba]. Those that like devoicing more may have [am_0pa] or
[am_0=pa]. Other cases work accordingly.

Note 3: The nasals /n/, /m/ and /N/ adjusts themselves to
a wide range of articulation positions depending on the phonetic context,
namely [n], [m], [J], [N] and [N\]. In the same cluster as fricatives or
plosives, they adjusts to their position. Depending on the voice of
the cluster, they also devoice or become syllabic or both (depending on
dialect).

Note 4: Some consonant clusters are judged impronouncible. Fukhian
inserts an epenthetic schwa into these. The precise rules are complex and
are currently only documented in the machine readable pronunciation map.

Grammar

Word Classes

Fukhian has two word classes: nouns and adjectives.
A former analysis claimed that there were verbs, but this is not
really precise. There are
endings that constitute a verb phrase, but it the word they are attached
is arbitrary and is usually simple the first word of the sentence.
Verbs, in that sense, are nouns or adjectives that carry the verbal
suffixes. Most nouns that describe actions are listed with a verbal
infinitive ending in the lexicon.

Syntax

Morphology

All endings will be given a priority to define how strongly they want
to be close to the base (a stem or a completed compound). The higher
the priority, the closer they are to the base. Note that derivational
endings are boundaries for the agglutination process: they constitute
new bases.

Fukhian is an agglutinating language which exclusively uses suffixes.

Nouns are inflected for number and case.

Adjectives are inflected for mode, which has two values: predicative
or attributive, and for degree.

The designated predicate of a sentence is inflected for voice, tense,
mode and person. There infinite endings for participle and
infinitive. Modern Fukhian has lost its gerund endings, since
it has lost its verbs, so the 'verbal' stem is really a noun that
can simply be used as such.

Pronouns can be incorporated into the predicate if they are directly
dependent on the predicate, i.e., genitives that modify nouns cannot
be incorporated into the predicate. The initial _h_ and
the number ending are dropped for incorporation. If phonology dictates
an epenthetic schwa, which might be written as _e_, this
must not be interpreted as singular.

Example:(he_ is the pronoun stem. It reduces to a
mere _e_ during incorporation:

[dzaf + n) +
(he + g + l]

-> [dzafnegl]

= I love you.

[he + d + l + or + n) +
(he + g + x]

-> [hedlornegx]

= I would give it to you. (Note: implicit copula.)

Predicate Endings

Passive Voice

Passive voice is formed by using the ending _yad_, priority 30.

Personal Endings (Priority 10)

Fukhian has five perions. The first three are equivalent with those in
English. In dependend clause (reported speech) or dependent or reflexive
clauses in general (e.g. possessive pronouns), the personal system
shifts by two person, so that the 1.ps. becomes the 3rd and so on.

Function

Ending

1. person

_n_

2. person

_g_

3. person

_d_

4. person

_oG_

5. person

_in_

Tense (Priority 11)

Tense is relative. The default tense is Equal tense (similar to
present and past tense) and the Pre tense (similar to perfect
and pluperfect).

Function

Ending

Equal

_

Pre

_uj_

Mood (Priority 20)

Function

Ending

Indicative

_

Conditional

_or_

Subjunctive

_uagx_

Infinites (Priority 10)

Function

Ending

Infinitive

_ax_

Partiziple

_ah_

There's no 'gerund' or the like; verb stems can directly be used as
nouns. E.g. zanax 'to eat',
zan 'the eating/meal (event of eating)',
zanaG 'food'.

Noun Endings

Number

Function

Ending

Singular

_ or _e_

Dual

_a_

Trial

_o_

Plural

_i_

Please note that Fukhian has no unspecified number for nouns: the
singular ending can be analysed to be an epenthetic vowel, since even
if missing, singular is expressed. Only incorporated pronouns lack
information about number.

Further note, however, that singular is also used if the number
information is taken from other constituents, e.g. explicit numbers.
Thus, there is no concord for number.

Case

In the description, typical name of similar case from other
languages (e.g. Finnish) are given.

Function

Ending

Description

Nominative

_ or _r_

Marks the subject, thus usually the agent, of a sentence. Fukhian
is nom/acc, not split-S, so this does not need to be the agent.
Subject is the correct name.

Essive

_h_

(formerly Predicative)
Marks the predicative noun, the one that is equal or
similar. (Compare the Mandarin copula 'shì'.)

Vocative

_g_

Marks the addressed entity in direct speech.

Genitive

_N_

Marks a general modifier.

Dative

_x_

Marks the indirect object: the benefactive, the malefactive,
the recipient, the involved.

The instrumental case is Ancient Fukhian's postpositive that had
to be used with all postpositions. It is for this reason that
the instrumental is still regarded a case -- in Modern Fukhian,
it could instead be analysed to be a postposition specifying the
instrument.

Example:

Ancient:

(mesiced)

= in the houses

Modern:

(mesied)

= in the houses

The cases of place, locative, allative and separative, can be
combined with postpositions of place and often of time, also.

Possessive

Possessives are introduced with the ending _y_ and are then
followed by a personal ending.

Example:

[mesynfed]

= We are/I am in my/our house(s).

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are formed by using the stem (he_ and
attaching a personal ending. This constitutes a noun that you
can modify normally, so you can add number and case endings to this.

When a pronoun is incorporated, it looses the information about number.

The Copula

Fukhian has a copula, (dax). It is always optional.

The copula may occur in sentences that lack a lexical predicate.
However, predicate endings may be attached to any noun, so the
copula can easily be dropped for that reason. The following
list gives an overview and the translation of phrase types
that need no predicate or use (dax) in Fukhian.